Monday, October 7, 2013

Happy Belated National Honey Month!

Happy Belated National Honey Month! Sure you might not have known there was a National Honey Month, but there is, and we missed since it was September! (Along with a Candy Month (June), National Celery Month (March), and National Be Kind to Servers Month (January)! So even though we're a week late, Happy National Honey Month!

Called “the nectar of the Gods” by ancient Greeks, honey is the only food source produced by an insect that humans eat. Humans have been hunting the golden nectar for at least 8,000 years, as evidenced by the Spider Cave paintings in Valencia, Spain that shows honey-hunters using a ladder to collect honey and honeycombs from a wild bee nest. An ancient dangerous parkour-ian act yes, but totally understandable considering the Auh-Mazing variety of things that honey can do.

Along with all its tasty deliciousness, honey is also an excellent skin beauty product
ingredient. It has anti-bacterial properties that are fantastic at
fighting off skin impurities (such as pimples and acne) and moisturizing
dry skin (such as chapped lips and sunburn). You can also help
eliminate scars by smoothing raw honey on them before you go to bed and
covering it with a bandage.

In terms of medicinal properties honey is the wunderkind of natural foods. It can be used as a holistic cough soother and allergy remedy by allowing you to build up an immunity to seasonal allergies. Historians have said almost all Egyptian medicines contained pure honey.

Note the use of the word pure in the last sentence.

Besides being delicious, honey is pretty much the only food that does not spoil while in an edible state, which why you should always buy raw honey.

A lot of honey found in the supermarket is not pure raw honey but
"commercial" regular honey, some of which has been pasteurized (heated
at 140 degrees Fahrenheit or more, followed by rapid cooling) for easy
filtering and bottling so that it looks cleaner, smoother, and more
appealing on the shelf for those who want their honey to look and taste like tap water.

On the flip side, raw honey is never strained, filtered or heated. Research suggests it’s
loaded with many trace minerals, organic enzymes, antioxidants, plus
antibacterial and anti-fungal properties that make it a powerful package
of health. Its rich origins also mean that it’s loaded with more interesting
tastes and flavors.

So if you're looking for the aforementioned Auh-Mazing honey properties, you'll need to get a raw honey such as Bee Raw, an American artisanal honey company. With 12 different raw honey varietals including Buckwheat, Meadowfoam, and Sourwood Bee Raw's tastes are the bee-bomb-diggity.

Their Aster Honey is an light amber honey made from the blooms of numerous species of late summer Aster flowers. With their apiary (also known as a bee yard) located in New York, the taste is very herbal pallet with notes of Thyme and
Eucalyptus.

Bees are responsible for pollinating one in every three bites
of food we consume. Sadly, because of pesticides, parasites and
malnutrition, bees are dying off in huge numbers, thus jeopardizing the production of food
that sustains human life. Honeykeepers have estimated that nearly one-third of all honey bee colonies in the country have vanished. If you want to do your part, Bee Raw Founder Zeke Freeman started the Save the Bees Fund, in order to help protect American honeybees from Colony Collapse Disorder.

Because in the end, we'd all like to celebrate National Honey Month next year, on time!